Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 9
Graph Database for Collaborative Communities
Rania Soussi, Marie-Aude Aufaure, and Hajer Baazaoui
Abstract Data manipulated in an enterprise context are structured data as well as
unstructured data such as emails, documents, and social networks. Graphs are a
natural way of representing and modeling such data (structured, semistructured, and
unstructured ones) in a unified manner. The main advantage of such a structure
relies on the dynamic aspect and the capability to represent relations, even multiple
ones, between objects. Recent database research work shows a growing interest in
the definition of graph models and languages to allow a natural way of presenting
data. In this chapter, we provide a survey of the main graph database models and the
associated graph query languages. We then present an application using a graph
database to extract social networks.
9.1
Introduction
We have now entered the knowledge era, where people work in a collaborative way
and manipulate structured as well as unstructured data. More and more information
about communications among people is available. This mass of information should
be used by companies to optimize the business process, for example, by using
information about people to constitute the best team for a particular project.
These vast amounts of data need storage and analysis. This data may reside
in multiple locations and may change over time. Moreover, the data sources do not
have a unified schema, or their schemas cannot be controlled. Current representa-
tion and storage systems are not flexible enough to deal with dynamic changes and
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